Promotional articles and advertising structures play vital roles in today's society. For example, promotional articles may not only inform the public of new products and services to promote sales, but also may serve to educate the public about important not-for-profit causes. In either case, the goals of the device are to attract the reader's attention and stimulate sufficient interest to influence a desired response.
Many vehicles and structures have been developed to meet these simultaneous needs of attraction, interest and response in wide audiences. A typical structure for promotional brochures or freestanding promotional inserts in wide use today includes advertising copy presented on two sides of a sheet of paper or light card stock, with a portion of the sheet configured as removable coupons or reply cards. Often a plurality of such sheets are presented in a single insert configured for insertion into newspapers or other publications.
One such freestanding insert or stuffer suitable for automated insertion into newspapers and the like is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,275,316 (Cleary, Jr.). U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,011,985 (Simson) and 4,428,526 (Riley) show other arrangements incorporating reply cards or envelopes, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,793 illustrates a single sheet advertising device including detachable coupons.
Unfortunately, such known structures incorporating coupons redeemable for valuable gifts or other incentives require affirmative action by the recipient to receive the incentive gift. There is also substantial time delay separating the promotional message from the reward effect of the incentive gift. The resulting redemption threshold will reduce or eliminate the interest of many recipients, while the time separation of the impact of the incentive gift from the desired message of the promotion will reduce its ultimate effectiveness. Typical mail-in responses may range from less than 0.1% to 5% of circulation, with greater than 5% being unusual. Thus 0.5% is therefore generally considered average and successful.
These undesired effects may be minimized by using a promotional piece having a structure which directly incorporates the actual incentive gift, thereby providing the desired benefits without any consideration or effort by consumers beyond purchase of their regular newspaper. For example, the structure may incorporate actual sample goods, such as in Cleary (FIGS. 16,17). However, the cost of the goods themselves and of the special processing necessary to incorporate them quickly become prohibitive for mass distribution. Further, it is often desirable to offer an incentive gift that has intrinsic meaning to the message of the campaign, which may not be possible with sample goods for certain types of promotions such as fund raising campaigns.
It is therefore desirable and an object of the present invention, to provide a structure and method for a promotional article which permits alternative promotions within a single promotional piece without mutual interference (e.g., where removal of the coupon does not detract from or destroy other functions), and to minimize the cost to the promoter while maximizing the value to, and impact on, the recipient. It is highly desirable and a specific object to provide a structure and method for a promotional article which permits these goals to be met synergistically to maximize the effect of the resulting promotion for the promoter, the advertiser, and the recipient. Unfortunately, known structures for promotional articles discussed above do not provide the needed structure for such a multi-functional article.